I-Corps: Convenient Visible and UV Laser Sources Using Nonlinear Conversion

University Of North Texas, Denton TX

Investigators

Abstract

Visible and ultra-violet (UV) lasers have a large and increasing number of applications in science, medicine and industry. Scientific applications of the proposed lasers would include studies of atoms and molecules of interest in physics, chemistry and biology. The proposed lasers are well suited for Raman spectroscopy, which is of growing importance in biology and material science. In the biomedical area, potential applications include flow cytometry and confocal microscopy, as well as other fluorescence applications, such as fluorescein angiography. In engineering applications, semiconductor inspection is a growth area, as is sensing technology based on fiber Bragg grating fabrication with UV lasers. Laser sources produced with this team's approach can be tailored to all of these applications. This project provides an efficient, convenient, and relatively low cost method of generating laser light in parts of the visible and ultraviolet (UV) spectrum that current lasers do not provide. The approach is to use convenient and long lasting laser sources in the near infrared (NIR) as the fundamental source, which is then converted to twice the fundamental frequency (frequency doubler). It is also possible to use two doublers in series to generate deep UV (DUV) light. There are some similar products available commercially, but the proposed system has higher efficiency, more simplicity and convenience, and a much lower expected cost.